Comparative Politics Basics
I. What is Comparative Politics?
II. Elements of the Political System
A. Governmental Institutions
B. Political Culture and Identity
C. Political Behavior
D. Ideology
E. Political Economy
III. Comparative Politics in Europe
I. What is Comparative Politics?
Comparative Politics is both a SUBJECT and a METHOD
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CP as a Subject
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CP as a Method
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Examines domestic politics and government within
numerous countries, whereas international politics
looks at relations between different countries.
Comparative political analysis
Rudyard Kipling: “What should they know of England
who only England know”
know”
Q: Why has American democracy succeeded?
Concepts, Theories and Hypothesis
Testing
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HYPOTHESIS: a potential but unproven
answer to an important political question.
THEORY: a set of concepts and hypotheses
which posit cause and effect relationships
between various social and political factors.
Pitfalls: Multicausality, Free Will, Necessary &
Sufficient Causes
Empirical (“What is....”
is....”) v. Normative (“What
should be...”
be...”)
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Politics and Power
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POLITICS (Dueling Definitions):
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Who gets what, when, and how
The authoritative allocation of values.
The process by which the community makes
decisions and establishes values that are binding
upon its members.
Common to ALL definitions: (1) Collective
Action; (2) Power
POWER: the ability to get people or groups to
do what they would otherwise not
II. Elements of the Political System
A. Governmental Institutions
„ STATE: All individuals and institutions that exert
power and make public policy, whether or not they are
in the government or not.
„ GOVERNMENT: The leadership in power at a
particular moment, roughly akin to an American
administration.
„ CONSTITUTION: Rules that specify the relationship
between the state and its citizens and the different parts
of the government
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Formal and Informal Elements
Federal v. Unitary
A. Government Institutions
LEGISLATIVE:
„ Upper House and Lower House
EXECUTIVE:
„ Presidential and Parliamentary
„ Head of State v. Head of Government
JUDICIARY:
„ Common Law v. Roman Law
„ Judicial Review (or Not)
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B. Political Culture and Identity
POLITICAL CULTURE: the basic attitudes
that people have toward each other, the state,
and authority
„ Sources: (a) Socialization; (b) National
experience (history)
„ Widely shared and relatively stable
„ CAN change over time or with seismic events
(i.e., 99-11)
Identity
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Nation: A group of people who are culturally,
linguistically, ethnically, historically etc. similar and
develop a common bond.
Nationalism: a political movement that emphasis on
the distinctiveness of one’
one’s nation and advocates the
creation of a separate national state
Ethnicity: A group of individuals having a distinct
culture - a subculturesubculture- in common.
Race: identification based on common biological
characteristics
Class
(Socio(Socio-Economic) Class:
Class: one’
one’s relative
position within the social and economic
structure
„ Objective v. Subjective
„ Disparate identities create divisions
(cleavages) within societies.
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Polarizing v. CrossCross-Cutting Cleavages
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Polarizing
Class
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CrossCross-Cutting
Religion
Class
Religion
Ethnicity
Ethnicity Ideology
Ideology
C. Political Behavior: Elections
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Single Member District (plurality or majority)
versus Proportional Representation
(Maurice) Duverger’
Duverger’s Law:
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Proportional Representation Î Multiparty System
Single Member Districts Î Two Party System
Political Parties
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Political Party: a broad membership
organization designed to win elections and
influence government by sponsoring candidates
under the organization’
organization’s name
‘Catchall’
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Catch all v. Particularistic
Party Systems: One Party Dominant (Japan;
Sweden); Two Party Dominant (US; UK);
Multiparty (Ger; Italy; France)
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The ‘Responsible Party Model’
1. Parties should present clear and coherent programs to
voters
2. Voters should choose candidates according to these
programs
3. Winning party should carry out program in office
4. Voters should hold the government responsible at the
next election for executing that program
„ This is the ideal against which party system performance is
compared.
Interest Group Systems
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Pluralist: multiple, competing interest groups
jockey to influence the government is a fairly
open and dynamic system
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Corporatist:
Corporatist: A system where the major interest
groups of society are explicitly integrated into
the government decisiondecision-making and policy
process
Pluralism and Corporatism
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D. Ideology
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ProPro-Democracy “isms”
isms”:
„ Conservatism
„ Liberalism
„ Socialism
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AntiAnti-Democracy “isms”
isms”:
„ Fascism
„ Communism
Less Government Control of the Economy (Free Markets)
Liberalism
More
Personal
Freedoms
Neoconservatism
‘Old’ Conservatism
Fewer
Personal
Freedoms
Fascism
Socialism
Communism
More Government Control of the Economy (Statism)
E. Political Economy
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Political Economy: the interaction of STATE
and MARKET
Capitalist economies vary on the:
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Role of the State
Capital (Business)
Labor
Culture
Liberal Market Economies (UK)
Coordinated Market Economies (Germany)
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III. Comparative Politics in Europe
Four Themes (from Kesselman and Krieger)
1. The interaction of states within the
international order.
„ Q: Are states (and governments) still the basic
building blocs of political life?
2. The role of states in economic management
„ Q: What policies foster successful economic
performance?
III. Comparative Politics in Europe
3. The particular challenges facing European
democracy and the pressures for more
democracy.
„ Q: What does ‘democracy’
democracy’ mean and how well
have various European polities achieved it?
4. The political impact of diverse sources of
social identity, including class, gender,
ethnicity, and religion.
„ Q: How do states deal with grievances of
minorities?
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